If it is once in a while, that is OK. I used to create even larger caloric deficit on 5 hour mountain bike trips, once a week. But you can't sustain that kind of huge caloric deficiency for long if it is too frequent. For permanent fat loss, you would want to commit to sustainable caloric deficiency over a long period of time. The fastest fat loser is not the winner, s/he is more likely to regain all the fat lost pretty soon.

I would recommend buying and wearing a Heart Rate Monitor to more accurately track your burn.

While larger people tend to burn more per minute while exercising due to carrying a heavier body through the movements, it is also typical that endurance is less, and therefore overall burn is not dissimilar to smaller people - ie if you're not fit you do it at a 'lesser intensity' and burn less, even though you're heavier and burn more, and these balance.

That figure seems high and may affect achievement of your goals if it isn't accurate and you rely upon it.

But yes, if you're eating less than you're actually burning purely in exercise, you MUST EAT MORE. Your body also burns calories just existing and breathing, and so you are creating an absolutely massive deficit this way, which is very unhealthy. The key to safe and healthy weight loss is a small deficit to create a small loss (about 2-3lbs a week for someone of your weight).

Your body burns calories in more ways than just exercising. We need calories to keep our bodies functioning. In fact these are the calories the body burns the most in a single day. We call this our basal or resting metabolic rate. These calories regulate our body temperature, grow new skin and nails, are used for thinking, and breathing, etc, etc.

Then we burn calories doing every day things like cleaning, reading, shopping, etc. and we call these active daily living activities. These are the second highest caloric expenditure.

I am? Hmm...My tracker says I need to eat like 2560-2910 calories, but I feel like I've been eating all day. It seems really hard to eat that much while eating healthy food. I haven't ate dinner yet though, so should I try to make more calories for that?

Why are you eating so little? What is the calorie range SparkPeople has generated for you? Remember eating less than your body requires for normal biological functions (growing new cells, fighting illnesses, regulating heart rate, blood pressure, body temp, etc), may lead to a greater percentage of lean body mass (bone, muscles, organ and connective tissue) so you need to eat accordingly. Remember food is fuel for your body. If it does not have enough fuel to function, it will do whatever it has to do. And remember it takes calories to expend calories.

Ok, so far today I've burned roughly 1600-1700 calories, and I've ate about 1300 calories. Is this bad, or good for losing weight? Should I eat more, or less? To lose weight you gotta burn more than you eat, right? Does that mean what you consume/burn weekly, or daily? I'm still really confused. Thank you!

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